Health Update: Youths Report Cases of Abuse, Assault in Survey

One out of four 10- to- 16-year-olds--or 6.2 million children--is a
victim of assault or abuse every year, a new national survey says.

One-third of the children surveyed said that they were either
assaulted or abused or that someone had tried to victimize them in the
previous year. One out of eight children was injured in such attacks,
which ranged from hitting to sexual assault, and one out of 100
required medical attention as a result, the survey says.

The Family Research Laboratory at the University of New Hampshire
conducted the telephone survey of 2,000 children, and the results were
published this month in the journal Pediatrics. The figures exclude
corporal punishment.

More than half of the children said someone had tried or succeeded
in victimizing them.

The study found that there were nearly three times as many assaults
by people outside the child's family as there were by family members.
In both types, most of the perpetrators were juveniles.

Girls were more likely to be sexually abused than boys--3.2 percent
of girls, compared with 0.6 percent. Seventy-two percent of those
assaults were committed by acquaintances; 42 percent were by
juveniles.

Children who experienced one form of victimization were more likely
to have experienced another form as well, the survey found. Black and
Hispanic children, those from Mountain and Pacific states, and those
from large cities were more likely, in general, to experience assault
and abuse, the survey says.

The authors concluded that much childhood victimization escapes
official notice. They called on national and state officials to collect
comprehensive annual statistics on crime involving youths and the abuse
of children.

More Vaccinations: A greater proportion of 2-year-olds were
vaccinated in 1993 than ever before, a federal study says.

The study, by the federal Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention, is based on the National Health Interview Survey.

The results were reported in the Oct. 7 Morbidity and Mortality
Weekly Report, which is issued by the C.D.C.

In 1993, the percentage of children who had received specific
vaccines ranged from 16.3 percent who had received three or more doses
of the hepatitis B vaccine to 88.2 percent for three or more doses of
diphtheria, tetanus toxoids, and pertussis, or D.T.P.

The percentage of children covered by each type of vaccine, except
measles, was greater last year than in 1992, the survey found.

Fewer poor children received vaccines than those whose families were
at or above the poverty line.

Missed Opportunities: Another federal study that appeared in the
same issue of the report found that changing vaccination practices
would eliminate many missed opportunities to vaccinate preschool
children.

Assess the vaccination needs of children every time they use the
health-care system.

Not defer vaccination because of a minor illness.

Administer needed vaccines simultaneously.

The study was conducted in Baltimore, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and
Rochester, N.Y., in 1991 and 1992.

Impact of Free Shots

Free vaccines do not guarantee adequate immunizations for poor urban
infants, an Indiana University study says.

Even though free vaccines were available to most patients in the
study--85 percent of whom received Medicaid--only 67 percent of the
infants had received their first set of immunizations by 3 months, and
only 29 percent were up to date by 7 months.

The study followed 464 healthy infants born in a municipal teaching
hospital in Indianapolis in 1992. It was published in the Oct. 11
Journal of the American Medical Association.

Mothers were twice as likely to have their infants immunized, the
study found, if they were married, if they lived with a grandmother of
the child, if they had received adequate prenatal care, or if they
thought immunizations were easy to get and effective, said the study's
author, Dr. Ann S. Bates, an assistant professor at Indiana University
School of Medicine.

Education Crucial

In looking at ways to improve immunization rates in low-income and
immigrant communities, the Chicago-based Joyce Foundation found that
educating parents and community outreach are crucial.

Released earlier this month, the preliminary findings of the
one-year project in Chicago indicate that:

Residents of low-income and recent-immigrant communities are
poorly educated about health in general, including
immunizations.

Teenage parents believe that health-care providers disapprove of
them, so they do not make regular visits.

Low literacy and poor English proficiency hinder parents' ability
to deal with the health-care system.

Parents have difficulty with the bureaucracy, the location, and
the hours of health-care clinics as well as with the complicated
schedules of immunization requirements.

TV Watchers No Fatter

The amount of television a child watches has no bearing on body
fat, a study of 3- and 4-year-olds says.

While the study, published in this month's Pediatrics, found
that the most active children tended to watch less television and
to do so for shorter periods, the television-viewing habits of
children who engaged in average or below-average physical activity
were not as well defined.

The study looked at 191 Texas children who were observed for six
to 12 hours a day up to four days over one year.

Television viewing time was not correlated with body fat, the
study said. The thinnest children did not watch more or less
television than the most-overweight children.

--Millicent Lawton

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